


Equivalent Exchange.

by crows_writings



Category: Frankenstein - Mary Shelley, Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Alternate Universe, Fullmetal Alchemist AU, I mean Frankenstein is also known as the modern prometheus, Major character death but its not exactly sad, Mild Horror, References to Ancient Greek Religion & Lore, You don’t need to know Fullmetal alchemist to read!, how could i not, i think, maybe more tragic but inevitable
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-07
Updated: 2021-01-07
Packaged: 2021-03-18 07:40:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,928
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28614486
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crows_writings/pseuds/crows_writings
Summary: Victor's beating heart built up a crescendo in his ears, a storm in tandem with the tempest outside the walls of his apartment. And with great difficulty he placed his hands to the array. Victor felt the transmutation as the alchemic energy travelled through him, he was the catalyst spurring on the reaction, watching the blue light flicker around the room in wonder.It was beautiful.Then it was wrong.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 10





	Equivalent Exchange.

**Author's Note:**

> This is a rewrite of the scene where Frankenstein brings his creature to life, but set in the fma universe! I wrote it as a narrative response for my book club in english class and had a lot of fun with it, so I hope you enjoy it too!!

_Equivalent exchange._

Victor Frankenstein had spent his whole life following this rule. For it was the first rule of alchemy, the subject which he held so dear in his heart. He had spent years dedicated to its study, even going as far as to find a teacher, leaving home far behind for the chance to learn more.

_You cannot create something from nothing. To obtain, you must sacrifice something of equal value._

Victor knew this, he lived and breathed this, but still, he couldn't help but wonder. What would be equal to that of a soul? To life? The soul is not a tangible object, it cannot be broken down into atoms like all forms of matter. Yet every living creature contained that spark of life. Victor Frankenstein took this as a personal challenge, it was his destiny to discover the secret of life. It had to be.

Victor had long since passed the skills of his teacher, he had a natural talent for the science of alchemy. Who better than he, to do the impossible? Of course, all forms of human transmutation were taboo. To believe yourself capable of creating life, to try to raise the dead, was an arrogance that would result in if not death, then severe punishment. None before, had lived through an attempt to create life with alchemy. Ancient texts going as far back as the now gone, country of Xerces, the birthplace of alchemy, cursed the idea of creating artificial humans. They called them homunculi. They said that line of research was a path as sure as the one Icarus had flown, that the poor alchemist who thought themself God would fly to close to the sun, and they were sure to fall hard. 

But Victor thought himself different. He had dedicated his life to his research. Locking himself in his apartment, cutting himself off from the outside world, alone with his work, he had discovered the secret to life. All he needed was a body, and with alchemy it would be easy to fashion. Water, carbon, salt, ammonia, and several others... He needed only to collect these elements and Victor would be able to bring to life the first artificial human. He would create the first homunculus. He would not be Icarus. He would be Prometheus. A titan stronger than the gods, building life from clay.

It was raining the night Victor committed the ultimate taboo. The sky raged, filled with a dark billowing mess of wind, torrents of rain, and the sense that something terrible was on the horizon. The universe cried out for the balance of life not to be disturbed, but Victor did not hear the pleas of Nature, he heard only the winds howl and the call to create. His window rattled as he drew the curtains closed over the sight of the town far below. The people were sleeping, for it was well past midnight, but when they rose the world would be born anew. And Victor would have done the impossible.

Victor anxiously looked over his array for the umpteenth time that night. It was a complicated circle of chalk drawn on the floor, filled with intricate shapes instructing how the flow of alchemy would manipulate the bowl of ingredients to create the body, and most importantly how it would draw on the power around it to imbue the body with life. Even though he could find no flaws, Victor still found himself shaking with worry, a cold sweat had overtaken him.

The rain battered his windows, a furious beating of the drums to match his racing heart. The thunder crashed with fervor as Victor settled on his knees in front of the transmutation array. He need only press his hands to the edge of the circle, and he knew it would light up with the familiar blue lighting that accompanied alchemy. It was usually a dance of energy he loved to watch, the crackle of the discharge something he would find both comforting and exhilarating all at once. But now he found himself wary, anxious to activate the array, for there would be no turning back once he activated it.

Victor's beating heart built up a crescendo in his ears, a storm in tandem with the tempest outside the walls of his apartment. And with great difficulty he placed his hands to the array. Victor felt the transmutation as the alchemic energy travelled through him, he was the catalyst spurring on the reaction, watching the blue light flicker around the room in wonder.

It was beautiful.

Then it was wrong. 

The momentary joy he felt at initiating the transmutation was gone, it had rebounded. But once the transmutation was set in motion, it would stay in motion until it reached completion. A violent wind was tearing through the room, ripping the pages from his books, and throwing the room into disarray. The transmutation began to give off a strange black smoke. Dark tendrils rose from the edges of the circle, flitting about the rooms like hair in the wind. 

Victor watched in horror as an eye began to open on the floor. It spanned the full diameter of the transmutation circle, and when it fully opened Victor's blood ran cold with dread. The snaking black tendrils reached for the horrified alchemist, and with a jolt of terror he realized that they had hands, and they were grabbing him pulling him towards the center of the eye. Victor screamed, desperate for his neighbours to hear him. A great pain shot through his chest, and then everything went white.

Victor looked up blinking in confusion.

He was standing in a vast white plane. There was no clear up or down, there was no horizon to be seen, no walls, floor, or ceiling, just a bright blank expanse of white. When his eyes finally adjusted Victor noticed he wasn't alone. Sitting cross-legged, about twenty paces from him was a being that surely wasn't human.

It was similar to Victor in stature and size, in fact it was nearly identical, but similarity stopped there. It had no skin; in fact, it had no body. It appeared to be made of nothing, yet Victor swore it felt like the being was made of everything. Nonetheless, it was only visible through the aid of its outline of black static. The being did have one visible, physical attribute though.

A smile.

A smile full of too many teeth to be interpreted as anything but threatening. It stretched from ear to ear and spoke of nothing but a sadistic joy. 

"Hello." The being spoke in a voice that sent shivers down Victor's back. It sounded like the static that surrounded it. Hot and cold, low and high, soft as a whisper and loud as thunder all at once.

"Who are you? Where am I?" Victor asked in confusion. His heartbeat was racing, and the being's smile only got larger as it leaned forward leering at him.

"Who am I? Well, dear Victor Frankenstein, I have many names. Some call me the universe, another might call me God, or the Truth. I am All, and I am One. But most importantly," The being ( _the universe, God, Truth, All, One_ ), lifted its hand to point a single unshaking hand at Victor's trembling form. 

"I am you."

Victor was numb, cold with a buzzing static that swallowed his entire body. The being had no eyes, yet he felt pinned to where he stood under its gaze. He was like a bug caught under a glass in the blazing sun. The being rose from where it sat, and leisurely made its way closer to Victor. Victor was no longer Prometheus he had become Icarus and he was catching fire.

"As for where you are..." The being trailed off as the low groaning of doors being opened sounded from behind Victor. He turned to find towering slabs of stone swinging open to reveal a dark emptiness, inside it an eye opened, staring into his soul.

"You have dared to come knocking at my Gate. And now you must enter it."

The being spoke as if entering the Gate was the easiest thing in the world. But Victor did not want to enter it, it felt fundamentally wrong. He turned to run, but the long, dark, spindly arms of before had returned, they pulled at his hair, digging into his skin as they dragged him into the Gate screaming. 

Inside it was hell.

The hands pulled him along at terrifying speeds, around him the black nothingness began to take shape. It had no distinctive form, it was pure information and it poured into Victor, filling his head with everything he had never known. Despite his love for knowledge, Victor could only beg for the flow of information to stop. He felt it pull and stretch his brain, sure that his head was about to explode from the pressure building behind his eyes. He could feel himself unravelling, falling apart into his base elements.

And then he understood. He understood everything, and just an arm’s reach away he felt more than saw it. 

The secret to life.

Victor reached for it, desperate to fix his mistakes. He had been stupid and ignorant, believing that he had the secret. But here was his chance to try again, he was so close, the final ingredient a hair width away. Just as his fingers brushed it, he felt a tug deep in the pit of his stomach, and like a rubber band pulled taut he snapped back to the plane of white.

Victor was poised on one foot, still reaching for what was no longer there. He stumbled forward until he was able to right himself, then he turned to the being with a childish anger. Victor demanded to enter the Gate again, begging for the chance to grasp what he had nearly had.

But the being only smiled, "I can't show you anymore. I'm afraid that's all your toll will pay for."

"Toll? I didn't pay a toll! What do you mean?" Victor shouted in alarm. The smile grew wider.

"Of course you payed a toll." The being began to walk forward, gesturing to its chest. "I have it right here."

Victor clutched his chest in pain as he stared in horror. Materializing out of thin air inside the being's chest was a heart. Victor's heart stopped, or rather it would have if it was still his. Because inside the being's chest was a beating heart, Victor's beating heart.

"It's the law of Equivalent Exchange, _Victor._ "

The being's last words rang through Victor's ears as he fell to his knees. He was no longer in the being's domain, but back in his own ruined apartment. Victor stared out in horror at the monster he had created. Dull yellow eyes met his own, the creature shuddering as it breathed, ribs cracking under the pressure. Victor only had time to wonder if he had truly succeeded in creating life before he keeled over.

His body fell to the floor with a pitiful thump, his eyes unseeing and chest empty where there had once been a heart. In a distant plane, a heart in the chest of a being made of nothing and everything ceased to beat. The being smiled, this was a story well told, the arrogance of humankind something as constant the way the world spun. Yet the being always found joy in the balance it created. For the being ruled its domain with one rule, and one rule only.

_Equivalent Exchange._

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!! Comment, kudos (etc.) appreciated! (and if you've happened to have read my fma/hp fic I'm so sorry that I didn't update over winter break, I've got exams comin up but hopefully I'll get the next chapter out soon!)


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